22 4 / 2013
The best product designers practice story-centered design. They begin by crafting stories that show how customers interact with a product, and only after they’ve accomplished that do they design screens as a way to tell that story of interaction.
From “Why good storytelling helps you design great products,” written for GigaOm by Braden Kowitz from Google Ventures. Click on the storyboard above to read the entire post.
20 4 / 2013
Click through the infographic to read about how Cisco is connecting Canadians to “the internet of everything.”
17 4 / 2013
Design Innovation via Extreme (cross-cultural) Immersion
There’s a particular type of traveler that many of us know: the tourist who never strays from the well-worn path of landmarks and tourist traps, who only sees the side of another culture that has been handpicked for people like him, and returns home with a very predictable—and incomplete—experience. Then there are those who like to explore, to get lost on purpose and let the unexpected find them. Unlike the first form of travel, those who allow themselves to get lost in the new environment have fewer guarantees and a greater risk of disappointment (and mugging), but there is also an infinitely greater chance of new and unique experiences that will prompt new ideas and points of view.
Just as travelers can easily fall into tourist traps in the name of efficiency and expectations, even the most highly trained and skilled ethnographic researchers can get bogged down through rote practice…
But there’s a better way…
To read more, click through the title above.
From HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: How To Create Extraordinary Products for Tomorrow’s Customers by the legendary design researcher Jan Chipchase. Excerpted by Fast CoDesign, April 15 2013.
08 4 / 2013
Ethnography is a tool for better design
Deck of 19 beautiful slides…
Produced by AIGA and developed in partnership with Cheskin.
01 4 / 2013
"Allows user to take easy, hands-free photos at any time by just screaming as loud as possible"
29 3 / 2013
One minute video introducing Funky Projects, a very smart consultancy with a focus on service and product design through strategic creativity.
At Funky Projects, empathic and active research (aka ethnography) is key.
28 3 / 2013
Learning From Las Vegas
Click through to watch TechCruch TV on Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Project.
27 3 / 2013
A Data Scientist’s Real Job: Storytelling
Data scientists want to believe that data has all the answers. But the most important part of our job is qualitative: asking questions, creating directives from our data, and telling its story.
Click through the image to read the article by Jeff Bladt and Bob Filbin.
HBR Blog Network
March 27, 2013
26 3 / 2013
VERY FUN VIDEO AD for Starting a Tech Business by Alex Cowan. Six times in his book, Cowan urges entrepreneurs to be like anthropologists…
- The key is to think like an anthropologist, not a salesperson.
- Think of yourself as an anthropologist wanting to learn about these target buyers in their natural environment… Don’t sell, instruct or judge; just try to understand.
- The Designer as Anthropologist…
- Remember, you’re an anthropologist. You’re not there to depose the users for requirements or even expect them to tell you what they want. Your job is to understand them, what they do and build a great product for them.
- You’re working like an anthropologist to describe the audience to your implementation team.
- Once you start, you’ll want to take the role of an anthropologist. Ask probing questions and abandon any preconceived ideas you have.
26 3 / 2013
“Freefalling Ethnographer” by Carrie Yury at Beyond Curious
A series of posts published in the Huffington Post
- March 21, 2013, Life Inside a Startup
- April 1, 2013, An Argument for Integrated Teamwork
21 3 / 2013
Nail this Customer Development Manifesto to the Wall
A Startup Is a Temporary Organization Designed to Search for A Repeatable and Scalable Business Model
- There Are No Facts Inside Your Building, So Get Outside
- Pair Customer Development with Agile Development
- Failure is an Integral Part of the Search for the Business Model
- If You’re Afraid to Fail You’re Destined to Do So
- Iterations and Pivots are Driven by Insight
- Validate Your Hypotheses with Experiments
- Success Begins with Buy-In from Investors and Co-Founders
- No Business Plan Survives First Contact with Customers
- Not All Startups Are Alike
- Startup Metrics are Different from Existing Companies
- Agree on Market Type – It Changes Everything
- Fast, Fearless Decision-Making, Cycle Time, Speed and Tempo
- If It’s Not About Passion, You’re Dead the Day You Open your Doors
- Startup Titles and Functions Are Very Different from a Company’s
- Preserve Cash While Searching. After It’s Found, Spend
- Communicate and Share Learning
- Startups Demand Comfort with Chaos and Uncertainty
Steve Blank’s LinkedIn post
March 20, 2013
19 3 / 2013
Mikkel Rasmussen of ReD Associates on the importance of ethnographic field work and other human science methods for figuring out where and how to focus innovation.
